Monotype Joins the MIT Clear-IP Consortium as Founding Member

Global Consortium to Research the Legibility and Design Issues of
Reading in Brief Glances, Google Joins as First Full Member

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: TYPE) today announced it has
become a founding member of the Clear Information Presentation
Consortium (Clear-IP), a consortium created by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) AgeLab. Monotype and MIT have
collaborated on research on the topic of typography and legibility in
quick glance environments, researching topics such as the influence of
typeface style, size, weight, width and line spacing, as well as
polarity and ambient light on legibility. Clear-IP is the evolution of
Monotype’s and MIT’s research collaboration that started in 2012. By
expanding membership and pooling resources, Clear-IP can broaden its
research and explore emerging topics related to legibility, type and
design.

Clear-IP aims to drive research that investigates legibility and design questions relating to reading in brief glances. (Photo: Business Wire)

Clear-IP aims to drive research that investigates legibility and design
questions relating to reading in brief glances. Reading in short bursts
of attention is increasingly prevalent as smartphones, smartwatches,
fitness bands, automotive and digital dashboards, advertisements,
product labeling and packaging, tablets and other screens are glanced at
hundreds of times a day.

“The glance is the new currency of the age and we need to know how to
design for it. The one thing that we keep finding out again and again is
that legibility is relative and it depends on many factors that often
interact with one another whether it is typeface style, size, weight,
color, polarity or even ambient light. When it comes to the design of
interfaces for reading in quick glances, we need to know how to balance
all of these factors in order to present clear information to the
reader,” commented Nadine Chahine, Ph.D., Type Director and Legibility
Expert at Monotype and member of the Clear-IP board of directors.

Despite expanding consumer device obsession, there is a lack of research
to guide design decisions on how information is best read and retained
in glances. Typographers, designers and interface engineers are only
beginning to address the technological challenges and psychological
implications of a fast-paced lifestyle that has fundamentally altered
how information is perceived and processed. Clear-IP aims to bring
together a wide variety of stakeholders with common interests in having
empirical data to guide decisions on typography and design. Through
scientific research, Clear-IP will be a publicly recognized authority on
best practices for the application of typography in graphic design and
bring precompetitive, data-driven clarity to the complexity of design
decisions.

“Through our work with Monotype, we’ve found that certain type styles
have an impact on how fast people can read information under specific
conditions. However, this work is only the beginning in learning how
type, design, technology, environmental and human factors play into
glance-based reading. With Clear-IP, we now have an organization
dedicated to isolating and understanding the tradeoffs surrounding the
questions of modern typographic design and information presentation. The
time is right to reach across industries and work together with other
companies and influencers to establish best practices for quick-glance
reading in places like automotive displays, wearables, labeling,
advertisements and other mediums,” commented Bryan Reimer, Ph.D.
Research Scientist at MIT AgeLab and member of the Clear-IP board of
directors. “Text legibility is one of those things that affects us
hundreds of times throughout our day without us ever really thinking
about it. Few people are really aware that every letter you’ve ever
read, every line of text, was meticulously designed. The shape, weight,
color, contrast and a hundred other things are guided by the invisible
rules of human perception. Our hope with Clear-IP is that we can pool
the resources of diverse stakeholders to learn more about how those
rules operate, and how they can be optimized for modern applications and
use cases.”

Clear-IP is targeting members representing a wide range of industries,
including design, technology, drug makers, financial services providers,
automobile manufacturers and their suppliers and other organizations
with the need to effectively communicate information through modern
interfaces, labels and advertisements. Google joined as Clear-IP’s first
full member. Members will help define research priorities, receive
priority access to all findings, data and research materials, and will
have the ability to discuss research findings with thought leaders,
scientists, typographic and design experts and other Clear-IP members in
a non-competitive context.

About MonotypeMonotype is a leader in empowering expression
and engagement through a combination of type, technology and expertise.
Headquartered in Woburn, Mass., Monotype provides customers worldwide
with typeface solutions for a broad range of creative applications and
consumer devices. The company’s libraries and e-commerce sites are home
to many of the most widely used typefaces – including the Helvetica®,
Frutiger®
and Univers®
families – as well as the next generation of type designs. Further
information is available at www.monotype.com.
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